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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and replenish our stores. Our driver had now got out of his district, 

 so we had for the future to rely on our maps and any other infor- 

 mation we could pick up ; and on the 11th we started off towards 

 Oranbrook for a twenty-two mile drive, to the first river, marked Slab 

 Hutt Gully, where I knew a Mr. Tunney lived, to whom I had an 

 introduction from Mr. Woodward, the Curator of the Perth Museum. 

 Mr. Tunney received us most hospitably, and I gained a great deal of 

 information about the district, and also something of the North- West 

 Territory, in which he had spent several years of his life, wandering 

 and collecting the fauna for various museums, &c. 



About three miles on the Kojonup side of the gully we came upon more 

 open patches of country, and the sand-plain flora in particular in all its 

 glory (fig. 97). The yellow V erticordia ; a small smoke-bush {Cono- 

 spermum), a heath-like scrub, with a mass of small white cottony flowers ; 

 Beaufortia (scarlet after the manner of Callistemon) ; Billardiera, a red 

 bell-flowered creeper, which twined itself about the taller of the low- 

 growing scrub ; Gastrolobiums, with their bright pea-flowers, many species 

 of which are poisonous to stock; Kunzea, Calythrix, Andersonia, the 

 bright-blue Dampieras and Leschenaultia; of all the brilliant flowers 

 I believe the red and blue Leschenaultia holds the field. We also saw 

 many white- flowered Epacrids, and the Scilla-like Chamaescilla corym- 

 bosa, with its crinkly foliage, varying from green at the base to brick- 

 red at the tips, with beautiful bright-blue flower head, some four or five 

 inches high ; the orange-flowered Bossiaea, Davesias, Hakeas, Grevilleas, 

 terrestrial Orchids, Droseras, and many other things. 



The Orchids and Droseras seem to grow anywhere and everywhere, 

 in swamps, on sand-heaps, or mountain-tops alike; but the species 

 seem to be ever changing, and their flowers are very lovely, especially 

 the latter, which were white, red, coral, mauve, and yellow. 



On the 12th we went on eighteen miles to Oranbrook, where we met 

 with the Great Southern Kailway, and stayed two nights. The water was 

 bad, but submitted to boiling, and the proprietor of the local hotel let 

 us have some water from his tank to make the tea with. We scoured 

 the sand-plain for plants, and found many new ones, especially the 

 Banksias, Dryandras, scrub Hakeas, Melaleucas, Lambertias, and the 

 flame-flowered Eremaea. I managed to get seeds of some of the species 

 about here, but on the whole we have not got many seeds, as it is too 

 early, and only the hard- wooded seeds of last year are obtainable. We 

 heard that we were not likely to find much water in the Stirling Eange, 

 and the next day this proved correct, when we pushed on twenty-three 

 miles to a ''well." It was the worst smelling water I have ever 

 experienced, which is saying a good deal. Situated in a boggy place, 

 the well had been riveted wdth green gum timbers, which had turned 

 the water a purplish-black, like ink. Needless to say, the horses would 

 not touch it, but after boiling it twice, and throwing in tea, we managed 

 to drink a little. All this day we drove over the sand-plains, along the 

 north side of the hills. The Stirling Eange is an isolated patch of 

 Silurian rocks, which rise abruptly out of the plain, and are devoid 



